| 1 If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. | 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. | 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. |
| 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. | 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. |
| 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, | 4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; |
| 5 it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, | 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; |
| 6 it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. | 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. |
| 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. | 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| 8 Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. | 8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| 9 For we know partially and we prophesy partially, | 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; |
| 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. | 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. |
| 11 When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. | 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| 12 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. | 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. |
| 13 So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. | 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. |